Eye of The Beholder
by Angel Wings Rinoa Cathy-chan
Summary: A young sorceress goes to the past to seek revenge for her dead mother. Along the way, she tries to find out what her real identity is. Is she really just an evil sorceress or something more?
1. Chapter 1




	2. Default Chapter Title




	3. Default Chapter Title




	4. Default Chapter Title

Eye of The Beholder **_Eye of The Beholder_****  
  
Chapter 4**   
  
_The same, old day. What does that Martine want with me now? _Mileena asked herself as she roamed in the hallways of the Garden, _If he mentions about his stupid ramblings around himself again, I swear I'm going to cut his voice box! At least after that, it'll be a whole lot quieter around here. _As always in the facility, students of the Garden strolled about and went to their classes. It was as quiet and stale as it had always been in the place, but something made Mileena's nerves tense. Everything was exactly the same as it had always been in the orderly Garden. She stopped walking and listened for any abnormal noises. She heard nothing out of the ordinary; she gritted her teeth, _No, there is someone here,_ she was certain of it. She gripped the handle of her trusty glaive, "I know you're there. Come out."  
"Very perceptive of you, human." Adrienne's voice came from a distance. Her applaud was mocking her, "Mileena Dubois, is it? Come with us or face the consequences. Now!"  
_It's that girl who helped this Garden. _Seifer thought to himself.  
Mileena grinned wickedly, "Sorry, lady. I don't take orders from anyone."  
"Oh, you will." she guaranteed to her. With a flash of light, Adrienne appeared from the ground with her knight, "No one disregards my authority, human. Seifer, take her."  
Seifer formally bowed to her, "As you wish, Sorceress Adrienne." he unsheathed his gunblade and faced his aponent.  
_A sorceress?........What is it with Galbadia Garden and Sorceresses? They're like cockroaches!_ Mileena thought. She accepted his challenge by leaping up to slash him with her weapon's blade, "A gunblade specialist....Interesting." she observed.  
She stepped back from the power of his force, "You'd better surrender now, girl. This isn't one of your training battles." she could somehow tell that he was holding back his true abilities. Adrienne sensed it as well  
"Careless knight! You're restricting yourself from fighting at full force."  
Seifer frowned angrily. His enemy was very strong. Despite her height and size, she was a fair match to him. She wielded a weapon which was two times taller than her like it was another extention of her arm. In a few minutes, she was able to read and counter his fast attacks skillfully. Finally, he decided not to hold back any longer; indeed, this was going to be a challenge, "You're really starting to annoy me, girl. If you don't come with us soon, I'm going to kill you."  
"You can try, because I'm not helping some hideous evil Sorceress or her pathetic excuse for a knight." Mileena laughed devilishly, "By the way, how did you get hired anyway? Were you the cheapest or was she just desperate?"  
That comment really hit a nerve on him. He tried to listen to his conscience telling him that he should not beat the crap out of her for saying such a rude thing. Adrienne, on the other hand, didn't had a good voice inside her so she used her magic to slug her to the ground then lift her up and slam her to the nearby wall. The impact left her extremely injured; judging from the piercing pain on her side, she guessed that the strength of it broke a rib at the minimum. Even if she was almost completely crippled, she still stood up slowly, and wiped the blood on her mouth, "You're pathetic. The only way you can win is by using your magic. How about you actually fight your own battles, instead of being a coward?"  
Hearing her comment, Adrienne remembered what her mother always said to her.  
  
_  
You must fight on without any remorse. Show no mercy for these humans. However, stabbing them in the back or killing them using one blow will only make you a kowardly, weak ruler. You must show them your power and majesty using your ability to kill them with some pride. Let them fight you honourably, then they will understand just how powerful you really are. So they kan fear and obey you._  
  
Adrienne openly showed her amusement at her readiness for a duel. She quickly stopped hovering; the nails in her left hand extended into long, sharp claws, "A fight? Then it shall be. Choose your weapon, woman."  
Mileena gladly changed her stance into a fighting position; glaive and anger ready to unleash onto the evil sorceress. Seifer was clearly impressed by her bravery and determination. If she was any other woman, she wouldn't have been able to stand let alone fight for her life. They battled on and on; he wasn't quite sure how long their battle lasted, but he was sure he watched it for more than half an hour. The brave, young woman still fought because of her strong stamina, but her body couldn't stand it any more. While Mileena was caught off guard by the pain, Adrienne pushed her to the ground for a final attack.  
"Now you will learn what punishment humans get when they defy sorceresses." Adrienne's claws were blocked by Seifer's Hyperion, "What are you doing? Move out of the way!"  
"Are you going to hurt her?"  
Adrienne laughed wickedly, "Of course."  
"You shouldn't."  
"And why not?"  
Seifer tried his best to show a cool, casual composure, "You said you needed her, right? She's already weak as it is. Injuring her will weaken her and will make her useless."  
Adrienne lifted him up by the neck, "Interfere again and after I kill you, your two friends are next." Both of them heard a loud clang of metal. Mileena had gone into the ventilation to escape, "Foolish knight! Look what you have done." she dropped him on the ground, "Go! Find and capture her."  
His mistress was infuriated at him; it was best to do as she told him to do.  
All the while, the young girl had crept into the garage and drove a car onto the gates,_ I have to lead her away from the students. There was no time to get the junior students out. They can't fight her. Damn! She broke my ribs. I will kill her and that pathetic excuse for a knight! Come on, Lee, you can make it._ she thought defiantly as she paved through the open clearing near the Garden. Unexpectedly, a blast of ice shattered a nearby window and propelled the car hard onto the field. Mileena was underneath the wreckage; at least she didn't get any more wounds from the crash. Her vision was blurred from exhaustion but she could make out the sorceress and her knight coming rapidly towards her, "I'm not working for you. Either way I'll die first. I'll run myself through before I become your slave." she shouted to them. She crawled helplessly through the field; her hand found a piece of jagged glass. She was about to plunge it deep into her chest when Seifer snagged it out of her hand which caused his hand to bleed in the process.  
He pinned her two hands onto the ground, "I understand how it's a good idea to kill yourself right now, but it isn't! You're making it worse for yourself." he whispered to her.  
"I'd rather be dead than be like you." she replied with a cold, harsh tone.  
"If you disobey her, she'll kill you then go after the people you know." he retorted back.  
"I have nothing left to lose but my honour and I won't lose that." her tone was emotionless.  
Adrienne watched on as the two fought with words. It seemed like they were more violent when it comes to verbal than physical disputes. As the two were still lying on the ground, she began to suspect something about her knight. His actions, to her, didn't seem very logical. He was acting very odd and she couldn't figure out why. Strange human. Why is he like this? It seems like this will never end if it keeps going on like this. she sighed and waved her hand; the two noticed sparkles of light appearing around Mileena's head; with some reluctance, she gradually fell asleep.  
"Seifer, pick her up. We have been here long enough." she ordered him.  
He lifted her onto his shoulder, _Should've thought of this a long time ago._   
  
"We can't get through. Nothing penetrated the barrier that the sorceress made on Lunatic Pandora." Squall told Rinoa. Her wound hadn't healed yet, but she was strong enough to stand up, "......Satisfied?"  
"What do you mean by that?" she asked innocently.  
"We didn't kill that sorceress."  
"Hey! It's not like I was the one who made that shield around Lunatic Pandora. How was I supposed to know she was going to do that?"  
"You might have since you are a sorceress."  
"Yeah, but I don't have the slightest clue how to use my powers." an idea came into her head, "Hey! What if I learn how my powers work then maybe we can--"  
"No." he protested before she could finish.  
"You didn't hear all of it."  
"I know what you're planning and it's not a good idea."  
"Yes it is! It's a brilliant idea. I'll learn how to use my sorceress powers then we'll use that to defeat Adrienne without harming her."  
"Why do you want to protect her?"  
"I told you, she's not entirely evil. Maybe she wasn't even born a sorceress. I still want to talk to her."  
"You will never be able to talk to her, Rinoa."  
"Yes I can. Have faith in me." she stroked his hair and kissed him on the cheek, "I know what I'm doing." she smiled widely, "Anyway! I feel like taking a stroll. I've been in this room for too long now."  
She took him by the hand and lead him outside the infirmary, ".......And try not to be so harsh on Seifer. He didn't mean it."  
It amazed him how kind Rinoa was. Even though Sorceress Adrienne and Seifer wanted to destroy her human form and turn her into a sorceress, she still found a place in her heart to have sympathy for them. It was one of the things he loved most about her. However he was not as forgiving as she was, "Of course he meant it."  
She sighed irritably, "Squall."  
"What?"  
"You're being unfair to Seifer again."  
"He committed a crime. He joined with a sorceress again. As a SeeD, I have to make sure that he is tried and punished for his actions." he said informatively with a straight face.  
"No, that's not the reason why you hate him. You wanna kill him."  
"Whoever said I wanted to kill him?"  
Rinoa spun him around by the shoulders and took hold of his chin, "Your eyes told me. Did you know your emotions are so transparent whenever you're angry?"  
"I've been fighting with him from the start. That isn't new." he lied.  
"No, at that point you wanted to bash him on the head or something, but this time it's serious. You really do want to kill him, don't you?"  
"....Maybe."  
Just as she was about to argue her case, a Garden student intervened; she was out of breath from running, "C-Commander! All the town in the...world..." she was panting in between.  
Rinoa sitted her on a bench, "Calm down. Get your breath back and tell him slowly."  
"...T-Thank Leonhart, mayors and presidents from all over the world had reported that strange, black dragons twenty-four hours ago have appeared in their cities, and have caused chaos and lots of casualties. Their trying to do something about it themselves, but it seems that the dragons were too strong for them."  
"...Dragons? Who could've caused a rampage on those monsters?"  
Rinoa shook her head sadly, "....They aren't on a rampage....They were ordered by Adrienne. And their not ordinary dragons either. These are different."  
Squall clenched his fists. ".....Adrienne....We're not going to let her win!" he turned to the student, "Tell Nida to set course for the nearest town that's in trouble. I will inform other Gardens about the crisis. How many dragons are there?"  
"There are seven in total, sir. Each one of them scathered into different cities."  
"We need to split up and take care of them then." as soon as he finished the last word, he ran to the elevator to get to the bridge.   
  
In a short time, SeeDs were sent throughout the different cities. Squall and his band of warriors were set out to destroy the beast in Esthar. Squall could have argued with Rinoa about her coming for all eternity, but unfortunately there were too many cities at danger for them to save, so she was reluctantly brought along to the mission. Selphie quickly landed the ship.  
"So where's the monster?" she asked her friends.  
"Just follow the destructive trail." Irvine glanced at the massive damage the beast had caused on the technological city.  
"We've got to hurry before that monster kills more people." Quistis said to them.  
All of them could clearly see the enormous dragon from afar. Already he had decimated the highways and was coming close to the central building. He roared a thunderous yell as he smashed some more of the soldier's artillery.  
"Damn, that's a HUGE dragon!" Zell exclaimed.  
"Well whatever it is, it's gonna be dead!" Irvine's bullet ricocheted off at the dragon's scales, "Well.....that didn't do it." he said, sounding a little disappointed.  
Quistis suggested, "Lets try our GFs. Looks like our physical attacks won't work on this monster."  
"Good idea. Lets go, Brothers!" two minotaurs appeared and ripped the ground below them apart as Selphie summoned them. The dragon fell to the ground with a hard impact, but unfortunately, it was still fully in tact. "Nothing happened!"  
"How about magic?" Quistis suggested another.  
A bolt of thunder crashed onto the dragon's head from Squall's Thundaga. A pile of dark smoke shadowed the debri left by the magic's voltage, but the monster was still standing. All six of them had to run as far away from the beast as possible as it exhaled a breath of solid, freezing ice.  
"Now there's something you don't want to touch." Selphie commented sourly, "Wait a minute.....Aren't dragons supposed to breath out fire?"  
"I think you read too many fantasy books, Selph. Of course there are some dragons that breaths ice....except they're very rare. This dude must come from miles and miles away." Zell informed her; all of them made an odd look on Zell, ".......What?! I'm Mr. Know-It-All-Zell, aren't I? I know these things."  
"I see." Irvine said, "So like...If it breaths out ice, then its weakness is fire."  
Rinoa rolled her eyes and sighed, "Well obviously."  
Squall quickly summoned Ifrit. A storm of fire gushed out from the grounds, and a half bull/half man emerged from it. He hurled a huge ball of inferno to the Ice Dragon. The dragon screamed in pain as the fire engulfed the dragon's scales. It fell to the ground. "Lets go to the presidential palace and inform them that it's gone." Squall told his teammates.  
"Eeeeyaaah!!" Selphie screamed in fright as the dragon's claws missed her head by an inch, ?Guys, it?s still alive!? Irvine and Zell both used Firaga against the dragon to stop him from swinging blows at Selphie. She kept dodging the attacks, but soon she was cornered by the dragon and a cliff. "So you wanna play tough, dragon? Take this!!" she unleashed her limit breaks onto the creature. Four Firagas in a row circled around it and exploded.  
As the rest of them fought on with the large creature, a vision entered Rinoa's mind once again as she kept staring at the dragon. Her eyesight started to haze and slowly turn to white. She saw her hands slowly rising and casting a fire spell onto the dragon; she saw Squall running towards her falling body before the world around hers deformed and changed into a completely different place.  
She wasn't in Esthar anymore with her friends. She was on a hillside looking at a picturesque view of Timber Town. Everything was as it was in Timber. However, the sky was of a strange hue; purple clouds drifted on a immensely black sky. _Am I dreaming or did I teleported here?_ she asked herself as she gazed at the scenery. The grass swayed by a strange, cold chill in the air. Curiosity took over her as she decided to take a closer look at the town. Each and every step or sound she made seem to amplify and echo. That was impossible since she wasn't in an open or silent area. Not only was the sky unusual, the people looked very fearsome as well; they were completely white....their clothes, their skin, their hair, every part of them as ghostly white as a bright light. They looked like dead spirits happily walking around the town square; they certainly didn't act strange. What's even more bizarre, no one noticed her walk by; not even her long time friends greeted her even as she heard her own footsteps on the pavement, and saw her shadow on the tiled cement. _They can't see me? This must be a dream._ she concluded in her mind. She only realized that she was walking to the train station when she got to it. Near the borders of the town beside the station, she heard her two best friends, Zone and Watts conversing with each other. Her feet stepped forward to take a closer look. Similar to the ghostly, town's people, her comrades were stark white as well. She almost became as white as them when she saw herself talking to her friends. _That's me! But....why are my clothes black?_ From head to toe, her 'mirror' was attired in black. It was the exact same clothes she always wore, but it was as black as a raven's feathers. Is she an imposter? Is this really me? As if her 'mirror' heard her thoughts, she turned and looked at her. Her eyes were of a suffocating black hue also. Rinoa felt herself turn pale just staring at the cold, hypnotic eyes. She wanted to run; to escape, but her fraud self's eyes that pinned her on the spot. With slow movements, the other pointed her fingers at Rinoa and with a loud, taunting, slow voice uttered, "You are to blame..."  
Rinoa woke up with a start. Damp, cold sweat dripped from her forehead to her chin. She wanted to scream in terror, but her throat was dry. She could still feel her dark version's eyes focused at her. She looked at her surroundings, she was inside a hospital in Esthar. Her muscles gradually relaxed, _It was just a dream. But it was so real! _She felt a slight movement leaning on her legs; she smiled serenely at watching Squall sleeping as he sat on a stool. _He probably stayed all night taking care of me._ she thought. She caressed his brown hair and planted a light kiss on it. With that, she was finally able to lay back onto the pillow to stare blankly at the ceiling. What does all of those dreams mean? As her eyelids leisurely fell, and her conciousness slowly drifted back to sleep, the "mirror's" words etched into her mind, _You are to blame..._  
  
To be continued... 


	5. Default Chapter Title




	6. Default Chapter Title




	7. Default Chapter Title




	8. Default Chapter Title




	9. Default Chapter Title




End file.
